All I Wanted Was a Chalkboard.

I decided it would be a great idea to turn our kitchen door into a chalkboard.

Pinterest made it look so easy (and, really, it was) and fun — and Mike was on board as long as he wasn’t expected to actually do it (he despises painting), so I thought, what the hell. I’ll just do it. I can figure out how to take a door down, and carry it to the garage.

And so I did those things. I took off the gross, paint-covered, dusty (sorry, Mom) hinges, carried that surprisingly heavy sucker out to the garage and got busy painting.

Well, no. I didn’t. I guess I got busy prepping.

After removing the wire storage racks on the back, wrestling with a random towel bar until I gave up and just broke it in half, and patching some (now giant) holes, I got started. My original plan was to paint the whole thing (and both sides) with the chalkboard paint, but Mike convinced me to tape off a white frame for the front so it wasn’t so chalkboardy. So, the whole door got a fresh coat of white paint. While that was drying, I decided it wouldn’t take me very long to touch up the doorjamb and the baseboards — so I did. Huge, enormous, tremendous, everyone-should-do-it improvement. I was super excited.

Until I stepped back and saw the corner baseboard, where the kitchen meets the family room. Now the kitchen is clean, and bright and white, and the family room looks old, dirty, dusty (again, sorry, Mom) and gross.

Crap.

Now I have to paint that room.

Which connects to the foyer.

Which connects to the stairwell and the living room.

And the stairwell connects to the hallway, which connects to all the bedrooms.

And so I have created a trimtastrophe.

I took care of the upstairs hallway and the stairwell, since I wouldn’t have to move any furniture, and that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. Each area I finish looks so much better, that at least I’m encouraged to keep going. Baby steps. Thank god I only work two days a week.

Anyway — after a few coats of white paint, all the way around — and five coats of chalkboard paint (only two were recommended, but I figured better safe than sorry, and I had plenty), some new hinges and a replacement doorknob, I turned this: